THE DEVOLUTION OF THE CROWN ESTATES BILL

Plaid Cymru’s Crown Estate Wales Bill has passed its third reading (unopposed) in the House of Lords today, (20th January) this marks a symbolic victory for the long-running campaign to bring control of Welsh natural assets into Welsh hands. 

The Bill was first introduced by Plaid Cymru peer Dafydd Wigley, who has argued that Wales should have the same powers as Scotland over its Crown Estate. The legislation calls on the UK Government to devolve responsibility for the Crown Estate in Wales to the Welsh Government.

The Crown Estate controls large swathes of the Welsh seabed and coastline, as well as around 50,000 acres of land, generating significant revenue that currently flows to the UK Treasury and the monarchy rather than being reinvested directly in Welsh communities.

Despite the smooth passage of the Bill through the House of Lords, the Labour Westminster Government has clearly reiterated its opposition to any devolution of control of the Crown Estates. Lord Livermore, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said ministers believe the current arrangements “provide the best outcomes for Wales and the wider United Kingdom”.

Plaid Cymru has signalled that the issue is far from settled. Llinos Medi, the MP for Ynys Môn, confirmed she will reintroduce the Bill as a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Commons. Whether it progresses will depend on whether the UK Government agrees to allocate parliamentary time.

Ms Medi has also pledged to table an Early Day Motion to increase pressure on ministers to allow the Bill to be debated. The move follows a failed attempt last year to amend the UK Government’s Crown Estate Bill.

Back in February 2025, Ms Medi proposed an amendment that would have given Wales parity with Scotland by devolving Crown Estate powers. The amendment was voted down, including by every Welsh Labour MP.

Since then, support for devolution has grown within Wales. All 22 local authorities have passed motions calling for the Crown Estate to be devolved, while a leaked Welsh Labour election strategy acknowledged that the party has “proudly made the case” for devolution, despite it not yet being delivered by the UK Government.

Dafydd Wigley, speaking after the Lords vote, said: “I am very pleased that this Bill, that I first introduced to the House of Lords in September 2024, has today passed its final stage. Plaid Cymru and I have consistently made the case that Welsh resources should be in Welsh hands, and I am glad to have secured support from across the House that this is the most logical way for Welsh communities to benefit from the wealth they generate.

“I now look forward to the Bill progressing to the House of Commons, where Llinos Medi will proudly present it. The UK Government should make time for the Bill’s consideration because it is what Wales deserves.

“When the Bill was passed in the Lords the government chief whip announced that ‘the King has signified his consent’, which is the normal procedure, but in the Commons the government will be pressing MPs not to make time for it. What would be really interesting would be if some Welsh Labour MPs were prepared to support it.”

Llinos Medi MP added: “The passing of this Bill in the House of Lords today ensures that the devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales is firmly back on the agenda here in Westminster. It remains deeply disappointing that not a single Welsh Labour MP supported my amendment to bring these powers into Welsh hands last year.

“This was a missed opportunity to stand up for their own constituents, who would directly benefit from ensuring that the wealth generated by Wales’s natural resources is retained and reinvested in our communities, rather than continuing to be siphoned off to London.

“For far too long, wealth has been extracted from our communities in Wales, and we have very little say over how it is managed or where the profits go. This Bill presents a real opportunity to begin redressing that historic imbalance. We only need to look at Scotland, which has had full control over its Crown Estate since 2016 and since then has reinvested millions of pounds each year back into local communities. Wales deserves the same parity of power.

“It is not only Plaid Cymru calling for this either – every single council in Wales has now voted in favour of these powers being devolved, demonstrating a clear national consensus. I therefore look forward to making this case once again to the UK Government when I reintroduce this Bill to the House of Commons as a Private Members’ Bill. The UK Government should make time for it, because Wales cannot be denied control over its own resources any longer.”

Last month, the Labour in Wales Welsh Government announced it was setting up a new expert group to examine options for reforming how the Crown Estate operates in Wales. The group, which first met in December, is exploring governance, accountability and the potential devolution of powers, reflecting growing momentum behind reform.

THE FIFTH ESTATE

If journalists are the fourth estate then perhaps the fifth estate (at least in Wales) is perhaps the Crown estate largely out of sight, out of mind literally under the sea and depending where you are standing under our feet. A proposed new law to bring to an end the extraction of wealth from Wales (aside from being long overdue, as devolution, even with its deliberately flawed constitutional settlement has been in place since 1997) has restarted the debate around devolving the Crown Estate (as has already happened in Scotland). 

Plaid Cymru Peer Dafydd Wigley, has put forward a private members bill which calls for increased democratic control by Wales of the Crown Estate - a significant and diverse collection of assets owned nominally by the British monarchy which includes the seabed to a distance out from the foreshore to 12 nautical miles, and about 65% of the Welsh foreshore, along with riverbeds and a numbered of ports and marinas. 

The seabed is important if not vital for offshore energy developments (including wind turbines, tidal turbines, tidal lagoons and tidal fences) from which currently any leasing profits are conveniently paid to the UK Treasury, which then pays a percentage (15% thanks to David Cameron) to the Crown. The Crown Estates are devolved in Scotland, which means that’s net revenues are retained and allocated locally. 

Understandably this has led to increasing calls over then last few years for the Crown Estates assets to be devolved, which would give Wales by default powers to make its own decisions over what’s happens with the assets rather than simply hooping that Wales will receive a fair proportion of the financial settlement it receives from the UK Westminster government each year. 

Lord Wigley rightly states that struggling councils are forced to spend thousands of pounds every year on maintaining access to the coastline and public footpaths as the income of the Crown Estates coastal assets continue to rise as a result of the increased levels of investment continues to grow in renewable energy developments. 

The bill, which received its second reading in the House of Lords on Friday (7th February) is understandably (from a Westminster and unionist perspective) opposed by both the Labour Westminster government and the Conservative opposition (which should tell us something about Labour and the Conservatives) as it has been set out the bill would devolve control of assets of the Crown estate (to Wales) this would apparently disrupt important energy developments including the construction of renewables energy infrastructure and new connections within the energy grid. 

Polling suggests that there is perhaps an appetite to devolve control of the assets of the Crown Estate to Wales’s as indicated by a YesCymru poll (in 2023) conducted by YouGov which showed that 58% of people supported the devolution of the Crown Estate to Wales. Even members of the Labour Party (in government in Wales and when in opposition in Westminster (before July 2024) have indicated that’s Wales’s should control its own assets and have a fairer financial settlement. 

Westminster has said (well it would wouldn’t it) that’s the devolution of the Crown Estates assets would not see Wales’s benefit financially, but, that say we’ll be open to interpretation and to what a Welsh government choses to do with any new power and newly acquired assets. 

While understandably such a transfer of assets would involve working out solutions to realm practical issues there is a practical precedent with the creation of Crown Estates Scotland back in 2017 - and that was under a Conservative Westminster government - that was tearing itself apart with BREXIT. 

Any monies aside, the divide and rule aspect of having different devolved nations within these islands having different levels of control of their own natural resources and assets and the wealth they can generate is simply unfair, undemocratic and does not make sense.